You're on the 'Net or you're nowhere
The U.S. Census Bureau recently started making some of its reports available only on the Internet. The agency's government division began this year by issuing government finance reports only on-line. That included surveys on state and local government finances, employment and retirement systems. Reporters were also sent short summary sheets. The key reason, according to the Association of Public Data Users, is to save money and get reports out faster. Census may issue some of that information later on CD. The Internet address is http://www.census.gov.
It's not the only agency to take that step. Among the others is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Its quarterly Statistics on Banking is available only on the Internet. So is its Historical Statistics on Banking, 1934-1993. It is also in the process of putting massive databases on its site. The Internet address is http://www.fdic.gov.
Join NICAR on the Internet
Don't forget to keep up with NICAR on the Internet. Subscribe to our listserve, and join as reporters talk about how to do the job better. E-mail to listserv@mizzoul.missouri.edu. In the message, on the first line, write: subscribe nicar-1 your name.
To join Investigative Reporters and Editors on the Internet, the instructions are the same except, on first line, write: subscribe ire-1 your name.
St. Pete hires new reporter
The St. Petersburg Times recently hired Brad Goldstein to become its lead computer-assisted reporter. Goldstein, a recent Neiman fellow, had worked at the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune.
Back to school CD
The National Center for Education Statistics has made its data even more user-friendly with a new CD-ROM of the Common Core of Data, 1987-88 through 1992-93. This combines all previously separate data on school enrollment, finances, school district census, staffing and dropouts. It even has Chapter 1 funding, which hadn't previously been available from the agency.
The CD runs in Windows and DOS, and is simple for looking up individual schools and districts. Downloading data for a single district or state is also easy if done as a CSV file. Downloading the entire country might be more difficult.
Neil Mara of the Charlotte Observer used the first version of this CD to do stories on school segregation last year. He cautioned against using the minority percentage calculated on the disk; the enrollment numbers by race seem to be accurate, though. The CD is free right now. Order by calling John Sietsema at (202) 219-1335.
Working overtime with a spreadsheet
The Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American used a Quattro Pro spreadsheet to examine city payroll records. The analysis by reporter Stephanie Reitz showed dozens of police officers and firefighters nearly doubled their salaries with overtime pay; a legacy of staffing shortages.
The April 23, 1995, story also showed how a 1986 state law designed to attract top teachers - a program later stripped of state funding - meant some of the city's highest salaries went to teachers.